A mother chained her daughter to a lamp post and left her there as punishment for playing truant from school. The shocking images show the eight-year-old crying and nervously sucking her thumb as she struggles to move with the metal chain hooked around her ankle tied to a large metal post.

Shocked onlookers gathered around the distressed girl, who was still wearing her school uniform as she stood beside her water bottle and school bag. The girl was stuck there for another hour after drivers tried and failed to release her before police arrived.

The youngster told cops that her 30-year-old mother had punished her because she failed to go to her mandarin classes at school in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

The mother will be investigated for child neglect and exposing a child to physical injury.